Issue #48, March 9, 2007

Oh No

Big Asteroid , Arriving in 2036, May Hit Earth, Experts Tell UN

By Dan Rattiner

There was this alarming item in the news last week. A group of American astronomers and NASA space officials intend to make a presentation to the United Nations, urging that the U. N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space commit themselves to stopping an asteroid heading our way from hitting the Earth.

The asteroid is called Apophis, and it is currently in outer space and you can see it through telescopes, heading right for us. It is scheduled to either hit us or just barely miss us on April 13, 2036.

The group making the presentation to the U. N. is called the Association of Space Explorers, which is based in San Francisco. Its membership not only includes astronauts and astronomers and space officials from America, but also Russian Cosmonauts, physicists and chemists from the highest reaches of academia around the world.

Rusty Schweikert, who was a member of the Apollo 9 crew and is a member of the Association of Space Explorers, told the press on Monday, “Every country is at risk. This is a global phenomenon that demands a global response.”

Apophis is 460 feet long, about half the size of the Queen Mary II, and if it should hit the Earth, it could take out an entire city or an entire region. The Association of Space Explorers believes that a rocket containing something called a “gravity tractor” should be fired up into space, near to Apophis, and then race alongside of it slowly “tractoring” the asteroid off on to a new course. They say that using existing technology, it should be possible to build a “gravity tractor” for about $45 million. During the next few months, the group intends to hold workshops on the dangers of Apophis as it continues on its course.

The odds of Apophis striking the earth have been calculated to be 1 in 45,000. As it gets closer, astronomers will be able to give a better assessment of its trajectory toward the earth.

It’s just one damn thing after another, isn’t it?